Bear Spent 10 Years In Cage So Small She Became 'Morbidly Obese'

For 10 years, Lily the bear didn't have much to do besides pace her cage. And so she spent her days eating - and eating some more.

Lily, an Asiatic black bear, technically wasn't even living in a cage. She was kept on the concrete floor of a corn crib, a large container usually used to store corn for livestock, at Deer Haven Mini Zoo, a roadside zoo in Maryland.

"She was morbidly obese," Brittany Peet, director of captive animal law enforcement at the PETA Foundation, told The Dodo. "She could take no more than a few steps in either direction - she was so obese that her stomach dragged on the floor of where she was kept."

As word of Lily's condition spread, people began to flood the zoo with messages, and share her story online. With public pressure mounting, the zoo decided to voluntarily relinquish Lily. This past November, a team with PETA and Colorado's Wild Animal Sanctuary (WAS) arrived at Deer Haven to finally free Lily - and take her to to her new home.

"There are several other animals still suffering there," Peet added. "The owners of the Deer Haven Mini Zoo have no knowledge or expertise relating to wild or exotic animals at all. That's why we saw this morbidly obese bear and other animals ... who are in desperate need of being retired to reputable sanctuaries."

"She settled in really well - she didn't seem too upset by the move or anything else," he said, noting that she seemed to enjoy the introduction enclosure where she was able to meet the two other Asian bears she'd share her future home with. "She seems really happy."

But Craig hasn't had much time yet to get to know Lily. Because a few weeks ago, with the air growing colder, she got to do something she hadn't done in years: hibernate.

At the zoo, Lily was forced to stay awake all winter because she didn't have anywhere to go. "They had a metal tube that she lived in - that was her den - and he [her owner] said she stayed up all winter because it wasn't an adequate den," Craig explained.

Not hibernating can have a huge effect on bears' health, Craig noted, and WAS often sees rescued bears bounce back after just one winter of proper sleep.

"We get bears all the time who have never hibernated before, and you can just tell that they're not as robust in terms of health," he said. "It seems to help their whole metabolism and the way their digestive system works."